Pataki first to book 2015 visit to first-primary state NH

Former New York Gov. George Pataki today became the first potential presidential candidate to book a visit to the first-primary state in 2015.

Pataki will be in the state on Jan. 11 for a meet and greet in the Seacoast area and on Jan. 12 to meet with “liberty activists” in the Concord area, according to a Pataki supporter.

Other stops are expected to be announced shortly, and he will do interviews with local media outlets as well as hold private meetings.

“He’s made no bones about the fact that his is looking at the possibility of running for President, and this just continues that effort,” the Pataki supporter said.

Pataki thus kicks off a year in which the political scene will be consumed with primary politics, leading up to the February 2016 event. Other potential candidates are expected to follow suit and announce visits in the coming days and weeks.

For Pataki, a former three-term governor of the Empire State, it will be his third visit to the state in four months; he previously visited in mid-October and made a pre-Thanksgiving visit in late November.

Twice in the past, Pataki considered running for President but decided against it. This time, people close to him have said, he appears more likely to run. But that remains to be seen, and his New Hampshire visit will be part of his decision-making process.

He has been involved with and is the spokesman for a super PAC called Americans for Real Change, which, like Pataki himself, professes smaller government and less regulation on businesses.

In November he told the New Hampshire Journal the federal government “is too big, too powerful, too intrusive and too expensive and needs to be dramatically scaled back. There are those who want to see us divided but I believe most Americans realize we have a common future and a common belief in this country, and we need the right policies to get it back on the right track.”

I like what he’s saying. He’s far more decisive than current crop of republicans, who seem to have gone native, are afraid to break out of “Washing Speak” and are just too tentative about even running. He’s a guy who sees problems and isn’t afraid to point the out.